Journal of Coastal Research SI 82 29–34 Coconut Creek, Florida 2018

Numerical Simulation Solutions for Wind-Induced Vibration

of Ship Rearview Mirrors Caused by Airflow Noise in
Shallow Seas
Qi Ji†* and Liu Kun‡
† ‡
Electrical Engineering Management Department Design Management Department
DaTang International Power Generation Co., Ltd. Beijing Momoco Culture and Art Co., Ltd.
Tangshan 243000, Republic of China Beijing 100020, Republic of China

ABSTRACT
Ji, Q. and Kun, L., 2018. Numerical simulation solutions for wind-induced vibration of ship rearview mirrors caused by
airflow noise in shallow seas. In: Ashraf, M.A. and Chowdhury, A.J.K. (eds.), Coastal Ecosystem Responses to Human and
Climatic Changes throughout Asia. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 82, pp. 29–34. Coconut Creek
(Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

The fluid–solid coupling method was used for numerical simulation of the problem of wind-induced vibration of an
exterior rearview mirror caused by airflow. The finite element model was established. The fluid–solid coupling method
was used to consider the process of interaction between fluid and solid. The dynamic characteristics of the rearview
mirror under the coupling condition at different speeds were calculated. Experimental results show that when the vortex
shedding frequency is close to the natural frequency of the rearview mirror structure, a strong vibration in the rearview
mirror can result. This numerical simulation can simulate the actual situation.

ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: Wind-induced vibration characteristic.

INTRODUCTION application of aerodynamics and structural mechanics of the

With the development of electronic technology, components
are increasingly installed in a rearview mirror, such as a
mirror heat booster, electric mirror regulator, and camera;
thus, the rearview mirror is getting heavier. The rearview
mirror is more susceptible to vibration, which causes a serious
threat to the safety of ship navigation (Alhuri et al., 2016;
Hashemi, 2017). In the design stage of the ship rearview
mirror, its dynamic performance is evaluated repeatedly in
experiments. The process stretches from problem finding to
problem solving, which not only extends the cycle of develop-
ment and design but also increases the costs of research and
development (Liu, Wang, and Chen, 2015; Radan et al., 2017).
Background and Goal
Airflow affects the rearview mirror through vortex-induced
vibration, the premature separation of airflow, the fluctuation
of surface pressure, and the concussion of turbulent flow (Qin et
al., 2015; Tariq et al., 2017). The purpose here is to explore the
application of a two-way fluid–solid coupling method in the
external flow field of a ship. The mechanism of vortex-induced
vibration is studied through the basic form of a simulation ship.
At the same time, the accuracy of the fluid–solid coupling
simulation method is verified by comparing the no-coupling
simulation (CFD) and coupling simulation (FSI). To eliminate
multifactor interference, the two-way fluid–solid coupling
method is used to numerically simulate the single rearview
mirror model (Usman et al., 2017). The obtained result is taken
ship in airflow noise in a shallow sea are realized.
METHODS
Analysis of Dynamic Characteristics of a Rearview
Mirror
In the shallow sea, the vibration mainly comes from two
excitation sources during ship sailing. The first is the ship
engine. The second is the vibration generated by the two
excitation sources at sea level, resulting in the fuzzy visual field
of the rearview mirror. In the time domain analysis method
(Maryam et al., 2017; Rashid et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2015),
the modal coordinate is introduced, and equations of motion
with different structures are given:
U½ M fxðtÞg þ ½CfxðtÞg þ ½ K fxðtÞg ¼ ff ðtÞgQ ð1Þ
In the equation, [M] denotes the mass matrix, [C] denotes
the damping matrix, [K] denotes the stiffness matrix, f(t)
denotes the stimulus vector, x(t) denotes the displacement
response vector, U denotes the matrix of vibration mode, and
Q denotes the contribution of each order mode to the
response. According to the matrix theory (Freund, Lele, and
Moin, 2015), Equation (1) is decoupled. The ith equation can
be decoupled as follows:
X
n
x2 ½M þ jx½C þ ½K ¼ Ui fF ðxÞgQ ð2Þ
i¼1

as the basis of a whole-ship study. Integrated analysis and
DOI: 10.2112/SI82-004.1 received 30 September 2017; accepted in
revision 31 December 2017.
*Corresponding author: qjdhdc2017@163.com
Ó
Coastal Education and Research Foundation, Inc. 2018
From the preceding equation, Ui denotes the feature vector.
The modal coordinate Q and physical coordinate F(x) are a
linear combination, and this linear combination is based on the
natural vibration mode. Thus, the response of system structure
in the coordinate system can be obtained:
30 Ji and Kun

Figure 2. Mesh model of the rearview mirror.

Figure 1. Flow field around the ship. grasped through the determination of these parameters (Radko
et al., 2016).

X
n
UQ Numerical Calculation of Fluid–Solid Coupling of the
xðwÞi ¼ Pi ð3Þ Ship Rearview Mirror Model
i¼1
I
Figure 1 gives the flow field around the ship. The finite
In the equation, Pi denotes the ith-order modal. The element analysis method is used for the solid computational
normalization theory can be used for modal mass I and mode domain of the MIRA model hull (Abbasi et al., 2017; Wang, Gu,
of vibration U: and Hu, 2016; Yasin et al., 2017). The elastification processing
( is carried out for the corresponding part, which is needed to
UT ½MU ¼ ½I research the hull. The elastic structural dynamic finite element
  ð4Þ
UT ½KU ¼ x2i equation is solved: MẌ ¼ CẊ + KX = Fa. Kinematic condition–
displacement compatibility is df ¼ ds, and the dynamic
In the equation, xi2 denotes the eigenvalue of the equation set. condition–force balance is n  sf ¼ n  ss, where, df is the fluid
Under airflow noise, the vibration modes of the ship structure displacement, ds is the solid displacement, n is the component
must have the following relationship, with the vibration mode of the unit-normal vector, sf is the fluid stress, and ss is the
corresponding to the natural frequency: structure stress. At the same time, the aerodynamic force is
( integrated to get the resultant force, which is applied to the
fUgi ¼ p1ffiffiffiffiffi fMi gi
Mi ð5Þ corresponding structural node:
fUg ¼ ½/fMi g1=2 Z
In the equation, [/] denotes the normalized vibration mode of FðtÞ ¼ hd sf  ds ð8Þ
modal mass, and the following equation can be obtained:
In the equation, hd denotes the displacement of the
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
xi ¼ Ki =M ð6Þ structural node, and ds denotes the infinitesimal area. The
solution vector of the coupling system is set as X ¼ (Xf, Xs),
In the equation, xi denotes the natural frequency of modal, and
where, Xs denotes the solution vector, which is defined on
the normalized vibration mode [/] of modal mass are used: the node of the structural coupling surface, and Xf denotes
 2   the solution vector on the node of the fluid coupling surface.
x ½ I þ jx½2ni xi  þ x2i Q ¼ UT fF ðxÞg ð7Þ
The known condition is ds ¼ ds(Xs), sf ¼ sf(Xf). The finite
In the equation, for the ship structural system under any element equation of the coupling system is shown as
airflow noise, if the master structure of the n modal damping follows:
ratio ni, the natural frequency of structural modal xi, and the
normalized modal mass vibration mode [/] are grasped, the
basic physical characteristics of the ship’s structure can be
Table 1. Properties of the main structure material of outside the rearview
mirror of the ship.

Young
Density Modulus Poisson
Part Name Material (kg/m3) (Pa) Ratio
Mirror housing ABS 1250 1.7 3 109 0.5
Permanent seat of mirror face ASA 1350 1.8 3 109 0.5
Rotating seat of mirror face ASA 1350 1.8 3 109 0.5
Lens holder PP 920 1.7 3 109 0.45
Mirror face Glass 2430 5.0 3 109 0.30
Rotating pivot ASA 1250 2.0 3 109 0.35
Mechanical spring 65Mn 7.5 3 105 2.0 3 109 0.25
Figure 3. Modal frequency and vortex shedding frequency.
Microscope stand ABS 1250 1.9 3 109 0.30

Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 82, 2018

 Solutions for Wind-Induced Vibration of Ship Rearview Mirrors
Figure 4. Time-travel curve of the drag coefficient.
"  #
Ff Xf ; ds ðXs Þ
F½X ¼    ¼ 0
Fs Xs ; sf Xf
In the equation, Ff denotes the fluid equation, and Fs
denotes the structural equation.
Finite Element Model of a Rearview Mirror
In the three-dimensional modeling software UG (Su, Li, and
Xu, 2016), the geometry model of the rearview mirror is built,
and the virtual assembly is finished. The rearview mirror mesh
uses shell unit S4R (Tang, Chen, and Zhang, 2016). This kind of
unit element has good performance stability and range of
application. The computer-aided design model of the ship’s
exterior mirror after geometric processing is imported into
HyperMesh (Wu et al., 2016) to extract the middle surface. The
rearview model, after extracting the middle surface, is shown
in Figure 2. Each component of the rearview mirror after
extracting the middle surface is meshed, and a mesh model is
obtained (Guoming et al., 2017).
When the mesh generation is finished, the next step is to
define the material properties and boundary conditions of
each component of the rearview mirror. The materials and
relevant parameters used in the exterior mirror system of the
ship are shown in Table 1, where, the density is the adjusting
density, and the adjusting density is the actual quality in
unit volume.
After completing the pretreatment work of the finite element
model of the exterior mirror system of the ship, in the
Figure 5. Time-travel curve of the lift coefficient.
Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 82, 2018
31
Table 2. Modal distribution of the rearview mirror.
No. Modal Order Value Frequency (Hz)
1 2852.4 8.251
2 3812.4 9.562
3 9.3214 3 107 9.651
4 1.8452 3 108 1550.4
5 1.3515 3 109 2135.8
pretreatment software HyperMesh, the model file is output in
the INP format, and it is imported into the finite element
analysis software ANSYS for the calculation. After generation
of the model, the linear system of equations is input into the
solver. The preceding simultaneous equation sets are solved to
obtain the strain field variables in the grid node.
Modal Analysis and Simulation Exploration of a
Rearview Mirror
ð9Þ
The Lanczos solver in linear perturbation analysis is used to
calculate the first ten modals of the model. The first five modal
frequencies of the ship’s rearview mirror are obtained, as
shown in Table 2.
From the preceding table, after three order modals, the modal
frequency of the rearview mirror has exceeded the range of the
airflow excitation frequency, so the effective modal only takes
the first three orders. This section selects the working condition
whose running speed of the ship is 15, 50, and 100 km/h. The
vortex shedding frequency is calculated under the airflow noise
(Figure 3). This frequency interval and the natural frequency
interval of the rearview mirror are compared as shown later.
On the basic of simulation exploration results in the previous
section, the minimum speed is 15 km/h. The ship speeds of
experimental study are 30, 45, 60, 70, and 105 km/h, and then
the good rule is obtained.
The emulation working conditions are shown in Table 3. The
noncoupling and coupling have 14 working conditions. In the
coupling calculation, the explicit coupling solution method is
used. After calculation of the fluid and the solid in a time step,
data are exchanged.
Calculation Results and Discussion of a Fixed Rearview
Mirror
In this section, several working conditions of fixed rearview
mirrors under different Reynolds numbers are calculated.
Figure 6. Spectrum analysis of the lift coefficient.
32 Ji and Kun

Figure 7. Cloud picture of the velocity scalar of the fixed rearview mirror at different speeds.

Figures 4 and 5 show the time-travel curves of the drag greater than 75 km/h, regular vortex shedding is observed in
coefficient and lift coefficient. The sampling frequency is the horizontal section (Figure 7):
obtained by the time step. The frequency needs to satisfy that
it can capture the frequency of vortex shedding, and the specific (1) V ¼ 15 km/h
(2) V ¼ 45 km/h
numerical values can be determined with the empirical value.
(3) V ¼ 75 km/h
The sampling interval for capturing the frequency of vortex
(4) V ¼ 105 km/h
shedding is not more than 0.002 s.
The dominant frequency of the lift coefficient at different
Calculation of the Rearview Mirror of Flow-Induced
speeds is obtained through fast Fourier transform, which is
Vibration under Airflow Noise
the shedding frequency of the vortex. The time-history chart
The numerical simulation of flow-induced vibration is
of the lift coefficient shows that when the speed is greater
researched. The range of working speed V is 15 to about 105
than 75 km/h, the lift coefficient only shows a kind of regular
km/h. In the process of numerical solution, the time-travel
change, so it has the unique dominant frequency. Through curve of each parameter is obtained. The fast Fourier
the calculation results, the root-mean-square value C1,rms, transform for parameters can be converted to the variation
the maximum value C1,max, and the minimum value C1,min of trend of the wind vibration parameter in the frequency domain.
lift coefficient Cl under corresponding speed are obtained, After selecting the terminal in the top left of the mirror face of
and the average value C1,min, the maximum value Cd,max, and the rearview mirror, the spectral analysis is carried out, as
the minimum value Cd,min of drag coefficient Cd are obtained shown in Figure 8:
as shown in Table 4.
The average value of the drag coefficient shows that at low (1) V ¼ 15 km/h
speed, the drag coefficient is unstable. There are minor (2) V ¼ 45 km/h
fluctuations. When the speed is greater than 60 km/h, the (3) V ¼ 75 km/h
drag coefficient is stable regionally. This rule can be seen (4) V ¼ 105 km/h
from the change of the root-mean-square value of the lift From the spectrum of the displacement amplitude, when V ¼
coefficient. 15 km/h, the low frequency has a small amplitude and the
When the speed is lower than 45 km/h, there is no vortex medium-high frequency has a large amplitude. The high-
shedding in the horizontal section or flat surface. At this speed, frequency amplitude is basically equal to the low-frequency
the dominant frequency of fluctuation of the lift force is not amplitude. The low- and high-frequency phases are led, and the
unique, which is consistent with Figure 6. When the speed is medium-high frequency phase is lagged; when V ¼ 45 km/h, the
Table 3. Working condition table of numerical calculation.

Speed of ship (km/h) 15 30 45 60 75 90 105

Speed of incoming flow (m/s) 5.85 8.55 20.47 23.35 28.74 35.47 46.87
Model SST SST SST SST SST SST SST

Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 82, 2018

 Solutions for Wind-Induced Vibration of Ship Rearview Mirrors 33

Figure 8. Phase spectrogram and displacement amplitude spectrogram at different speeds.

low frequency has only slight destabilization, and medium-
high frequency and high frequency are strong. The high-
frequency phase is led, and the medium-high frequency phase
is lagged; when V ¼ 75 km/h, in addition to the fundamental
frequency, there are two obvious dominant frequencies, and the
disturbance can ignore the lag of the frequency phase; when V¼
105 km/h, the vibration is stable, and the amplitude difference
between midfrequency and medium-low frequency begins to
gradually reduce from V ¼ 75 km/h. Now, the phase of
midfrequency is led, and medium-low frequency phase is
lagged.
DISCUSSION
Only the left rearview mirror is used as the study object of
flow-induced vibration. Besides the left rearview mirror, the
other components are treated as a rigid body (Roslee et al.,
2017). The result shows that fixed and vibrated the frequencies
Table 4. Dynamic coefficient of the rearview mirror at different speeds.
of vortex shedding of the rearview mirror are almost the same,
but there is a tiny deviation.
From the point of view of frequency, Figure 8 analyzes the
mode of vibration of rearview mirror at different speeds,
including the change of the vibration phase and the decompo-
sition of the vibration signal. The result shows that when fixed
and vibrated, the frequencies of vortex shedding of the
rearview mirror are almost the same, but there is a tiny
deviation (Table 5).
This model finds that the vibration of the rearview mirror is
locked as a fixed frequency when the nonvortex-induced
vibration is dominant. It does not change with the frequency
of vortex shedding and the wind field intensity.
CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the vibration characteristics of the ship
rearview mirror under airflow noise in a shallow sea are

Lift Coefficient (C1) Resistance Coefficient (Cd)

Speed of Vortex Shedding
Ship (km/h) RMS Max. Min. Mean Max. Min. Frequency (Hz)
15 0.17 0.13 0.17 0.33 0.34 0.28 3.99
30 0.16 0.14 0.16 0.35 0.36 0.34 19.21
45 0.16 0.15 0.18 0.36 0.38 0.29 33.14
60 0.16 0.15 0.15 0.36 0.37 0.35 43.25
75 0.16 0.15 0.15 0.36 0.37 0.35 49.96
90 0.16 0.15 0.15 0.36 0.37 0.35 57.68
105 0.16 0.13 0.16 0.36 0.37 0.34 64.58

RMS ¼ root-mean-square, Max. ¼ maximum, Min. ¼ minimum

Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 82, 2018

34
Table 5. Vibration parameters of rearview mirror at different speeds.
Speed of ship (km/h) 15
Speed of incoming flow (m/s) 5.68
Frequency of vortex shedding (fsHz) 4.12
Frequency of vortex shedding (fs*Hz) 4.54
Frequency of displacement (Hz) 56.78
Displacement amplitude 0.048
studied through the fluid–solid coupling method. The innova-
tion points of the research are as follows.
First, the numerical simulation method of fluid–solid
coupling is applied to research of the dynamic characteristics
of the exterior mirror, which can cover the shortcomings of the
research method of flow-induced vibration of the rearview
mirror and reduce the experimental cost during the develop-
ment stage.
Second, the unidirectional coupling method is abandoned.
The two-way fluid–solid coupling method can be used to realize
the real-time exchange between the fluid calculation data and
the solid calculation data to make the simulation more realistic.
The finite element model of this research uses fixed stiffness
and damping conditions. The effect of these two conditions on
the vibration form is large. Research that considers the use of
variable stiffness and the damping model can find the flow field
mechanism causing the rearview vibration.
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